Women in business: Gender and commercial space in nineteenth‐century Glasgow
Graeme G. Acheson et al.
Abstract
Focusing on women entrepreneurs in a large British city, we examine how women's commercially listed businesses populated that city. Using commercial property rental records, our study allows us to understand sectoral variation and the distribution of businesses across the city and to assess both the absolute and relative contribution of women in the commercial environment. In addition to this, we examine census returns and trade directory information to understand the character of women business owners and how they came to own their businesses. We found that women accounted for 12–15 per cent of the sole trader business population and that they paid in the region of 20 per cent lower rent than equivalent sole trader men. We show differential patterns of women's business activity, with women represented most strongly in key sectors and locations associated with urban expansion. The majority of women's businesses were ‘start up’ enterprises, whereas businesses formerly extant under the name of a male relative (most often a spouse) and continued by widows were typically larger.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.